United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ____________ United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit

No. 24-20075 FILED May 29, 2025 ____________ Lyle W. Cayce Jane Does 1-5, Clerk

Plaintiff—Appellant,

versus Willie Obiano,

Defendant—Appellee. ______________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas USDC No. 4:23-CV-813 ______________________________ Before Haynes, Duncan, and Wilson, Circuit Judges. Stuart Kyle Duncan, Circuit Judge: Plaintiffs sued a former Nigerian governor under the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991 (“TVPA”), claiming he ordered military forces to shoot and kill their husbands at rallies in Nigeria. The district court dismissed the suit based on the common-law principle of foreign official immunity. On appeal, the only argument plaintiffs properly present is that the TVPA implicitly abrogates that immunity. We reject that argument and affirm. Case: 24-20075 Document: 71-1 Page: 2 Date Filed: 05/29/2025

No. 24-20075

I The complaint alleges Nigerian military forces shot indiscriminately at participants in two peaceful rallies in Nnewi, Anambra State, Nigeria, on August 9, 2020, and October 23, 2020. The widows of five men killed during the rallies (“Plaintiffs”) sued the former Governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano, in a Texas federal court seeking compensatory and punitive damages under the TVPA. The TVPA provides a civil action for victims of torture or extrajudicial killings perpetrated by persons acting under a foreign nation’s authority. 1 Obiano, who now lives in Texas, served as Governor of Anambra from March 17, 2014, to March 17, 2022. The complaint alleges the “extrajudicial killings” of Plaintiffs’ husbands occurred “under color of Nigerian law by Nigerian military forces under [Obiano’s] command and control.”

_____________________ 1 Section 2 of the TVPA provides in relevant part: (a) Liability. An individual who, under actual or apparent authority, or color of law, of any foreign nation— (1) subjects an individual to torture shall, in a civil action, be liable for damages to that individual; or (2) subjects an individual to extrajudicial killing shall, in a civil action, be liable for damages to the individual’s legal representative, or to any person who may be a claimant in an action for wrongful death. Pub. L. No. 102–256, § 2(a), 106 Stat. 73 (Mar. 12, 1992) (codified as a note to 28 U.S.C. § 1350). Section 3 defines “extrajudicial killing” as: a deliberated killing not authorized by a previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples. Such term, however, does not include any such killing that, under international law, is lawfully carried out under the authority of a foreign nation. Id. § 3(a).

2 Case: 24-20075 Document: 71-1 Page: 3 Date Filed: 05/29/2025